Ostrich farming takes off in Kenya

One of the 1500 ostriches at the Maasai Ostrich farmWRENmedia

With growing interest in the huge birds and rising demand for their protein-rich, low-cholesterol meat, it has been a good year for the Maasai Ostrich Farm in Kenya. As the only commercial ostrich farm in Kenya, and the largest in East and Central Africa with over 1,500 birds, it has endeavoured to keep up with local demand.

Although South Africa leads the world in ostrich meat exports, the success of the Maasai Ostrich farm in Kitengela, 45 km south of Nairobi, is testament to the fact that ostrich farming could become more than a fledgling industry in Kenya.

Keeping up with demand

"We have recently increased breeders from 200 to 500 to meet the increased orders for ostrich meat," says production manager Johnson Kithuka. About 70 per cent of the breeding stock is the red-necked Maasai ostrich. The rest are Somali ostriches and crossbreeds of the two sub-species. Some of the eggs are collected from the wild and incubated to increase numbers as well as genetic diversity of the stock on the farm.

The boom is partly due to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) lifting its 2003 ban on the sale of ostrich and crocodile game meat. Now the farm supplies ostrich meat to some of the country's top hotels and restaurants, where demand has leapt by up to 60 per cent during the last four years.

Leonard Mutachi, operations manager at The Carnivore, Nairobi's famed game meat restaurant, says his customers have demonstrated a keen and growing taste for ostrich meat. "There has been an increasing demand for ostrich meat here. It's up 50 to 60 percent since late 2003," he says.

Demand for live exports is also on the rise, with markets as far afield as France, Holland, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Africa and China. "We have not penetrated the EU market in supplying meat because of the local high demand [in Kenya]. Also, the EU has many and costly regulations before accepting the meat in their market," says Kithuka.

Waste not, want not

The fleshy thighs of the birds are the only edible part. Unlike other poultry, the ostrich has no breast meat. The birds are slaughtered between eight to 18 months-old to ensure the red meat is tender. A well fed eight to ten month-old juvenile ostrich produces 45-50 kg of meat on-the-bone and sells for US$12 per kg. Steak fetches around US$24/kg, and US$28 for fillet.

Ostrich meat is high in protein and low in fatWRENmedia

One of the benefits of ostrich farming is that very little goes to waste. Musau Wambua, a leather craftsman based at the ostrich farm, says well-tanned leather can be used to produce high quality handbags, belts, and folders among other items, with export markets in Spain and South Korea. "To secure a quality skin, the birds are slaughtered at the average age of ten months and the skin is exported to South Africa for tanning," notes Wambua.

Ostrich oil, produced from ostrich fat, is used to help treat asthma and other chest complaints. There is also a strong demand in Nairobi for ostrich feathers for clothing, decorations and furniture stuffing. However, in an attempt to control poaching of wild ostrich eggs, sales of eggshells are prohibited in shops.

Keeping a 'head' out of the sand

"If the birds are well kept, their value is fantastic," says Josiah Maritim, the Accounts Clerk at the Masaai Ostrich Farm. However, he admits that there are challenges. "Infectious and nutritional diseases are some of the major constraints, although they can be avoided with attention to detail in incubation and chick rearing," he says.

Another challenge for would-be ostrich farmers in Kenya is the excessive bureaucracy involved to permit farmers to operate their businesses. Kithuka admits that the tight regulations have been the downfall of other similar establishments. "If the regulations are softened, more farmers could once again pick up the farming," he says. "The Maasai Ostrich firm is now the only one of over 20 ostrich farms that were once licensed in Kenya."

High rates of chick mortality are one of the biggest constraints to ostrich productionWRENmedia

But regulations are not the only constraint to running a successful ostrich farm: significant investment is required to set up the pens and incubation units for rearing the birds, and avian flu is a constant threat. Most recently the disease has affected the ostrich industry in the kingdom of Saudia Arabia where over four million poultry have been destroyed, including over 13,000 ostriches following a series of outbreaks in the Al-Kharj region, south of Riyadh. An outbreak of avian flu in South Africa in 2004 cost farmers millions of dollars in lost income.

The lifespan of an average ostrich - 70 years - is surprisingly long. Even within the next decade, it is difficult to predict the evolution of the ostrich industry in Kenya, but worldwide it certainly seems to be an expanding sector and one which would benefit Kenyan farmers, if they could overcome the necessary hurdles for this fledgling industry to really take flight.